Consumption of dark green vegetables falls short of recommendations, in part, because of unpleasant bitterness. A laboratory-based study of 37 adults was used to determine bitter and hedonic responses to vegetables (asparagus, Brussels sprouts, kale) with bitter masking agents (1.33 M sodium acetate, 10 and 32 mM sodium chloride, and 3.2 mM aspartame) and then characterized by taste phenotype and vegetable liking. In repeated-measures ANOVA, aspartame was most effective at suppressing bitterness and improving hedonic responses for all sampled vegetables. Among the sodium salts, 32 mM sodium chloride decreased bitterness for kale and sodium acetate reduced bitterness across all vegetables with a tendency to increase liking for Brussels sprouts, as release from mixture suppression increased perceived sweetness. Participants were nearly equally divided into three 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) phenotype groups. Those tasting the least PROP bitterness (non-tasters) reported least vegetable bitterness, and the additives produced little change in vegetable liking. Aspartame persisted as the most effective bitter blocker for the PROP tasters (medium, supertasters), improving vegetable liking for the medium tasters but too much sweetness for supertasters. The sodium salts showed some bitter blocking for PROP tasters, particularly sodium acetate, without significant gains in vegetable liking. Via a survey, adults characterized as low vegetable likers reported greater increase in vegetable liking with the maskers than did vegetable likers. These results suggest that bitter masking agents (mainly sweeteners) can suppress bitterness to increase acceptance if they are matched to perceived vegetable bitterness or to self-reported vegetable disliking.

中文翻译：

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掩盖蔬菜苦味以提高适口性取决于蔬菜类型和味道表型。


深绿色蔬菜的消费量未达到推荐值，部分原因是其苦味令人不快。一项针对 37 名成年人的实验室研究用于确定使用苦味掩蔽剂（1.33 M 乙酸钠、10 和 32 mM 氯化钠以及 3.2 mM 阿斯巴甜）对蔬菜（芦笋、球芽甘蓝、羽衣甘蓝）的苦味和享乐反应，然后其特征在于味道表型和蔬菜喜好。在重复测量方差分析中，阿斯巴甜在抑制所有蔬菜样品的苦味和改善享乐反应方面最有效。在钠盐中，32 mM 氯化钠可降低羽衣甘蓝的苦味，而乙酸钠则可降低所有蔬菜的苦味，并且倾向于增加对球芽甘蓝的喜爱度，因为混合物抑制的释放增加了感知的甜味。参与者几乎均等地分为三个 6-正丙基硫氧嘧啶 (PROP) 表型组。那些尝到最少 PROP 苦味的人（非品尝者）报告的蔬菜苦味最少，并且添加剂对蔬菜的喜好几乎没有变化。阿斯巴甜一直是 PROP 味觉者（中度味觉者、超级味觉者）最有效的苦味阻滞剂，改善了中度味觉者对蔬菜的喜爱程度，但对超级味觉者来说甜味太多。钠盐对 PROP 品尝者表现出一些苦味阻碍，尤其是乙酸钠，但对蔬菜的喜好没有显着增加。通过一项调查，蔬菜喜欢程度较低的成年人表示，与喜欢蔬菜的人相比，戴口罩的人对蔬菜的喜欢程度增加得更多。这些结果表明，如果苦味掩蔽剂（主要是甜味剂）与感知到的蔬菜苦味或自我报告的蔬菜不喜欢相匹配，则可以抑制苦味以提高接受度。